mainly used for carrying around a pencil case, water, folders, laptop and odd bits. While I understand durability comes at a cost, I have a budget of £50. Thanks and I look foward to responding to your suggestions

BIDDEFORD, Maine (WGME) -- A person is dead following a shooting involving ICE in Biddeford, according to House Speaker Ryan Fecteau.

The incident happened on Monday morning near Pool Street.

Fecteau says Maine State Police are on scene gathering details and he expects the FBI to investigate as well.

"I’m aware of reports that someone was fatally shot in Biddeford this morning, and ICE may be involved. My team and I are working to get more information and will share more as we learn it. Please follow the guidance of local authorities and stay safe," Congresswoman Chellie Pingree said.

BIDDEFORD, Maine (WGME) -- A person is dead following a shooting involving ICE in Biddeford, according to House Speaker Ryan Fecteau.

The incident happened on Monday morning near Pool Street.

If I quote any more of the article I might get banned

BIDDEFORD, Maine (WGME) -- A person is dead following a shooting involving ICE in Biddeford, according to House Speaker Ryan Fecteau.

The incident happened on Monday morning near Pool Street.

If I quote any more of the article I might get banned

I have been out of the game for a while, but intend to pirate games of the classical asshole-publishers, such as Ubisoft. I know how to do all of that with Movies and TV Shows, but for PC Games, I am lacking legit sources and unfortunately, Impress is out as well.

How does one pirate PC Games in 2026, via torrent or usenet?

Scott Metzger | Bluesky | Patreon

@angryseagullnoises

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So i'm doing a bit of reading about the basics of nuclear fission these days, just to understand what's actually happening there.

Here are some interesting things that i think that i learned so far:³

• nuclear engineering is all about the neutron economy. If you had an easily-available cheap source of neutrons, we wouldn't need big nuclear power plants because energy could be easily generated by hitting Hydrogen-1 (protium) with neutrons to make H-2 (deuterium) out of it. According to this diagram, this releases around 2 MeV of energy per collision (resulting nucleus has 2 nucleons), which is a lot of energy.

• the problem is that we don't have a cheap source of neutrons, and that's about where the whole trouble with nuclear energy begins. we're smashing U-235 specifically because it's fissile and can sustain a chain reaction: It emits more neutrons per collision than it absorbs, so we get a net gain of neutrons out of it.

• the sun sources its neutrons from weak interaction between protons and electrons¹. Basically this fuses a proton and an electron together to make a neutron. This is the rate-limiting factor in the sun's fusion and determines the sun's lifetime before it burns through its fuel. The average time for a particle to undergo weak interaction is about 10¹⁰ years in the sun's interior which is about the sun's lifetime. If the sun had more neutrons, it would burn faster.²

[1]: well, sorta. this is kinda simplified and more precisely described in the proton-proton chain which is the same thing but with extra frills.

[2]: Also note that while the weak interaction is the rate-limiting factor of the fusion process, it barely releases any energy. Almost all of the energy is released due to the strong interaction which glues protons and neutrons together really tightly and that way releases a lot of energy.

[3]: if you know better, please do correct me.

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cross-posted from: https://infosec.pub/post/49354520

Donald Trump’s Homeland Security regime has been at the center of two critical stories in the past two weeks. In the first, federal agents shot and killed a man and quickly got to work justifying the use of force under the flimsiest of pretenses. In the other, it made house calls to people who said mean things to them online.

Since taking office last year, the Trump administration has been telling us that fighting the good fight of white supremacy will make you look cool and noble. The DHS under former Secretary Kristi Noem spent $220 million to help her cosplay as a cowboy and call up ICE recruits as if we’re fighting a new World War, this time against our friends and neighbors. It’s all very embarassing.

The propaganda is cringeworthy. But the immigration crackdown it services has been, undoubtedly, cruel and deadly. In Texas just this Tuesday, an ICE officer shot and killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a father of three who lived in the US for 35 years building houses and caring for his family. The agency immediately released a statement justifying lethal force on someone it alleges tried to “weaponize his vehicle.” Videos showing parts of the confrontation already suggest it’s probably another bullshit story like the ones we’ve seen from Minnesota. The feds later admitted they were looking for an entirely different person. Salgado Araujo nonetheless ended up dead.

ICE has proven it can’t handle public confrontation. That’s bad. But it also can’t even handle emails and Instagram posts. It’s demanding a total lack of accountability not only from the law, but from society itself.

Over the past year, DHS has invented its own novel version of “doxxing” — once the domain of angry gamers on the internet — wherein the public now dares to unmask and name federal agents who have been responsible for horrors like the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis. The government doesn’t want us to talk about the agent accused of shooting her to death (whose name, by the way, is Jonathan Ross). Before being shot to death, Good told agents, “I’m not mad at you.” They killed her anyway, then called her a “fucking bitch.”

The government is very upset that people are criticizing it for shooting innocent mothers to death in the street. DHS stalked and intimidated a man who protested against state-sponsored killing, issuing him a “WARNING NOTICE” as flimsy as the nonjudicial “warrants” it uses now to bust into people’s homes. It’s like if Jay and Silent Bob showed up at your house because of an online comment you wrote, except with guns and the force of the federal government. It’s both deadly serious and deeply unserious. What are they afraid of? Well, we already know. Accountability in any form.

Minnesota officials had to sue the federal government for access to evidence that would aid in investigating ICE shootings because the feds won’t cooperate. It would be a weird thing for the feds managed by an allegedly pro-cop party to do, except when you consider it’s not really a pro-cop party, what with the January 6th insurrection. The current White House webpage about January 6th calls it “a date which will live in infamy” while moping about cop-killers being unfairly treated and saying Democrats did the real insurrection. Yeah, they’re lying. But also, seriously: weak crybaby stuff.

This of course all ladders up to Trump, whose project for more than a decade has been to accumulate power while eliminating the concept of shame and accountability. The man cannot tolerate a single slight without going off the rails, nor can his subordinates. This posture has trickled down to his army of fellow losers who mirror him in several ways: (1) denying any wrongdoing, (2) blaming others, and (3) intimidating anyone who crosses them. In some really bad cases, (4) obstructing justice. Then there’s also (5), looking really lame while doing it.

...

ICE is a menace to democracy and its murderous conduct should be soberly considered. But we should also recognize that these people are weak and sad and ought to be made fun of. Even for their stupid outfits, which look ripped from a “how to be tacticool” buying guide. And Americans are ridiculing these people. What better way to protest an army of clowns than by showing up as Portland did with a human frog at the front? Cops arrested that frog. Trillions of dollars later, we’ve learned nothing about counter-insurgency, because now there’s a frog legion.

These ICE agents are so small that they wear masks in public like a bunch of cowardly Patriot Front wannabes, who probably got a similar amount of training. You’d think the average DMV worker would have been masked up for years based on the abuse they get, but then again, the average government employee is far braver than these fools.

ICE is now the highest-funded law enforcement agency in the federal government. If you know anything about the actual waste, fraud, and abuse of federal funding for defense, you’ll know this is not something that guarantees quality or competence. This is just Donald Trump’s new private domestic army. I’d call them Stormtroopers except for the fact I’m pretty sure some of them are getting their uniforms and body armor from Temu.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/technology by /u/ArgentineBeauty on 2026-07-13 12:59:41+00:00.

I'm not talking about the "typical" junk food (like KFC or McDonalds), instead it's more on certain aspects of Japanese cuisine being carb heavy or features fried items such as: ramen, agepan, karage, tempura, gyudon, tonkatsu, yakitori, etc. I mean, can ramen or gyudon bowls still be deemed "fast food" even though they appear 'healthier' than American fast food.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/technology by /u/Just-Grocery-2229 on 2026-07-13 12:05:46+00:00.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/technology by /u/Just-Grocery-2229 on 2026-07-13 11:50:30+00:00.

This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/technology by /u/pscoutou on 2026-07-13 11:48:56+00:00.

In 2002, Maine became the first state to implement a statewide laptop program to some grade levels. Then-governor Angus King saw the program as a way to put the internet at the fingertips of more children, who would be able to immerse themselves in information.

By that fall, the Maine Learning Technology Initiative had distributed 17,000 Apple laptops to seventh graders across 243 middle schools. By 2016, those numbers had multiplied to 66,000 laptops and tablets distributed to Maine students.

King’s initial efforts have been mirrored across the country. In 2024, the U.S. spent more than $30 billion putting laptops and tablets in schools. But more than a quarter-century and numerous evolving models of technology later, psychologists and learning experts see a different outcome than the one King intended. Rather than empowering the generation with access to more knowledge, the technology had the opposite effect.

Plus, I doubt the person making the threat would wait for any actual preparations such as canceling various subscriptions. And I don't think they'd allow for the necessary witnesses required while I'm writing my will.

BYD has secured a record-breaking 11.2 GWh battery energy storage contract, marking one of the largest battery deals ever announced. The agreement highlights the company's growing dominance in global energy storage and reinforces its position as a major player beyond electric vehicles.

https://carnewschina.com/2026/07/10/byd-lands-historic-11-2-gwh-grid-contract-equivalent-to-186000-electric-vehicle-packs/

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8953267

Banner image: Lilac-breasted roller in Etosha National Park, Namibia. Image courtesy of Giles Laurent via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

How Namibia's bird conservation projects build community resilience (commentary)

• Droughts and land degradation often erode communities’ social bonds, but in the Karas region of Namibia, bird conservation initiatives have become a rallying point.
• Women and youth are at the forefront of these initiatives, which has inspired confidence among peers and shown that conservation is not the domain of scientists alone, but also a practice of everyday community resilience.
• “It is time for policymakers, NGOs, and donors to support these initiatives not just as biodiversity projects, but as investments in community well-being,” a new op-ed argues.
• This article is a commentary. The views expressed are those of the author, not necessarily of Mongabay.

In Namibia’s Karas Region, birds are more than symbols of freedom or beauty — they are teachers of resilience. Their survival in arid landscapes mirrors the endurance of the communities who live alongside them. Grassroots bird conservation projects here have revealed something profound: protecting birds can also strengthen families, nurture hope, and build social cohesion.

Across villages in Karas, parents and children tend habitats together, restoring nesting sites and planting native vegetation. These acts of care are not only ecological interventions; they are lessons in patience and problem solving. When a child sees a weaverbird return to a reed bed that the community has protected, it is a moment of triumph that teaches perseverance in the face of environmental challenges.

Women and youth are at the forefront of these initiatives. In one community, a group of young women organized bird walks for schoolchildren, teaching them to identify species like the sociable weaver and the pale chanting goshawk. Their leadership has inspired confidence among peers and shown that conservation is not the domain of scientists alone — it is a practice of everyday resilience.

Sociable weavers nesting in acacia trees, Karas Region, Namibia. Image courtesy of Martha Karas.

These projects also counter the isolation that environmental stress can bring. Droughts and land degradation often erode social bonds, but bird conservation has become a rallying point. Families gather to monitor nesting sites, share stories, and celebrate small victories. In doing so, they weave resilience into the social fabric. Conservation here is not only about biodiversity; it is about belonging.

The ecological benefits are clear. Protecting bird habitats safeguards pollination, seed dispersal, and pest control — services that sustain agriculture and livelihoods. But equally important is the emotional strength these projects cultivate. In Karas, conservation has become a human resilience strategy: a way to confront uncertainty with collective action and hope.

This perspective challenges the conventional view of conservation as a technical exercise. Too often, policies focus narrowly on species counts or protected areas. While these metrics matter, they overlook the lived experience of communities who find strength in caring for nature. By recognizing conservation as both ecological and social, we broaden its value and deepen its impact.

Lappet-faced vultures like this are native to the arid plains of the Karas Region, and organizations like Vultures Namibia ensure there’s awareness of them. Image courtesy of Martha Karas.

The lesson from Karas is urgent. As climate change intensifies, resilience will be as critical as resources. Grassroots bird projects show that resilience can be cultivated through simple, shared acts of care. They remind us that conservation is not only about saving species, but about sustaining the human spirit.

It is time for policymakers, NGOs, and donors to support these initiatives not just as biodiversity projects, but as investments in community well-being. Funding should prioritize programs that empower women and youth, foster intergenerational learning, and strengthen social bonds through conservation.

Birds in Namibia’s Karas Region are survivors of harsh landscapes. But they are also mentors of resilience, teaching us how to endure, adapt, and thrive together. By listening to the voices of those who lead grassroots efforts, we can reimagine conservation as a strategy for human strength as much as ecological survival.

Supporting these projects is not charity — it is foresight. In every nest protected, in every child inspired, we see the seeds of resilience that will carry communities through the challenges ahead.

Conservation, at its best, is a story of hope. And in Karas, that story is being written by birds and the people who care for them.

Martha Karas is a Namibian writer based in the Karas region.

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Farmers that combine grazing land with solar farms (badass name incoming: agrovolatics) are seeing 2-3x income to traditional farming.